


Don't cry

by Gentrychild



Series: Ascalon [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Hitchhiking, Monsters living among us, horror story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 15:18:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12111543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gentrychild/pseuds/Gentrychild
Summary: A short story about a woman abandoned in the middle of nowhere, why she got here, and what will happen to her.Hitchiking and things that are not what they seem at first are involved.





	Don't cry

Davina was walking on the side of the road, at night, her high heels in her hands. Walking bare feet on the pavement was far from comfortable, but her shoes had been designed to be beautiful and worn for an hour or two before becoming torture devices.

She was trying really hard not to cry.

When Troy had told her to get out of the car, she didn't have the time to grab her bag, her jacket, or anything else. She had hopped out because suddenly, her boyfriend had scared her and some instinct had insisted that some distance was needed. He had left as soon as she was out, and she had not managed to believe it at first. She had watched the car leaving, convinced that it was a joke and that he would come back in a minute. Or two.

She had finally realized he had left her in the middle of the road at night, like some dog that wasn't wanted anymore. And she just didn't understand how that could happen. How someone she loved, someone she had been with for a year, could do that to her.

She took a deep breath, and fought off the tears that were appearing. She. Would. Not. Cry.

The lights of a car appeared down the road just as she couldn't take it anymore, as if someone had heard her prayers. She knew hitchhiking was a really bad idea, but so was walking several hours alone in the dark, especially for a woman.

Davina still couldn't believe Troy had dared to do something like that to her.

The grey Sedan stopped by her, and a man looked at her through the open window, his eyes wide as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. She could understand : it wasn't often that you were seeing a petite woman in a pretty black dress that was doing nothing to protect her from the low temperatures, by the side of the road like some girl in a horror movie ready to be slaughtered.

A blond woman in the next seat was leaning forward to look at her without have her sight obscured by the driver's head, and her expression was frankly concerned.

"Miss, do you need help ?" the man asked.

"I..."

For a moment, Davina was, of all things, mortified to ask for help.

"I need to go back to Austin. I don't want to bother you but..."

"Don't be ridiculous," cut the woman as she unlocked the doors. "What happened ?"

Davina watched them, and the idea of walking several hours didn't seem so much of a bad idea if she had to explain the mess she had found herself into. The sad, pathetic mess that she somehow had decided to ignore until it dropped her in the middle of nowhere.

Except she had no water, no phone, and no jacket, and there was a serious chance she would actually get hurt.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want," the man said. "But leaving you here... It just won't do. I swear I am not a serial killer, neither is my wife, and we live in Austin, so..."

Usually, she would have answered with a 'sounds like what a serial killer would say' and a little smile, but she was too tired and cold to make jokes. Instead, she thanked them, a lot, and hopped in.

Caleb, the driver, told her there was one of his sweater in the back if she was cold, insisting on the fact that it was clean, and Claire, his wife, confirmed because despite what he liked to pretend, her husband loathed physical activity and was the kind to read at the gym. A horrified gasp followed as Caleb swore he had stopped doing this. He read on his tablet now.

Their banter was light, and would even had been funny if it had not reminded to Davina the talks Troy and her had before they went and saw his family. And the more she thought about it, the more the gaping hole in her chest hurt.

Calling it a hole wasn't exact. She always had this feeling of sadness that never left her. Melancholic, as her mother said. Whatever it was, there was a place inside her where she put all her sadness, and every bad feeling, because the idea of not being in control of herself was the most distressing thing that could happen to her. It didn't matter if the whole world became pure chaos, as long as she was the master of her soul.

Her mother also said that no men deverved her tears, but the awkward silence as her saviors were trying to talk about anything except the elephant in the room did not help.

"I... I had an argument with my boyfriend."

The words spilled out and suddenly, she couldn't stop them. It needed to get out, and it was better to tell her sad little story to two strangers than to cry like some idiot.

"I met his family for the first time today... And it didn't go well. They didn't think I was a good match for their son."

"Because you're hispanic?" Claire asked. She quickly glanced at her dark skinned husband, and Davina felt that there was an untold story here.

"No," Davina answered with a sad smile. "Not for that. They are really proud of.. What they can do, and I am just not like them. It never seemed to bother Troy. But when I met them... Their gazes were so heavy on me, and I just wasn't welcomed. No, it's not that... I wasn't their equal. I was tolerated because Troy was with me."

They listened to her, and there was compassion their eyes but no pity, and that was why she kept talking. Pity would have killed her, but human kindness wasn't a threat to her pride. On the contrary.

"And they started to ask me questions. About the future, about children, about raising them. And I just knew what they wanted to hear. But I told the truth, because I didn't want our future relationship to be tainted by a lie, even a polite one."

"It's one of these situations when the only thing to do is to trust your instinct," Claire said. Her tone was calm, but her body language betrayed her. She was not happy.

"Maybe," Davina answered. She had thought the same, but she wasn't sure anymore. "We argued on the way back, and it wasn't the first time we yelled at each other. But it was the first time he was absolutly furious at me. Finally, he stopped the car, and told me to get out. Then he took off."

She realized how insane this whole situation was as she spoke about it, and the catharsis she had hoped to find by confiding vanished. She crossed her arms, as if it could physically keep her from saying more, and she shrank into the sweatshirt too big for her.

"I won't pretend to know you or your boyfriend, Davina," Caleb calmly said. "But unless you were attacking him or his life was in danger, there is no acceptable situation when a man can drop his girlfriend hours away from civilization."

"Has he ever been controling ?" Claire asked. "Does he sulk when you do something he doesn't like, until you change your mind ? Does he let it go when you say no, or do you have to push back ?"

Davina didn't answer, and that was an answer in itself.

She couldn't have been so stupid, right ? Troy was hansome, charming, funny, and devoted to her. He loved her.

Wasn't he ?

"Can I borrow your phone ?" Davina asked and her tone was dangerously calm.

"I'm not sure..." Caleb asked but his wife had already given her the phone.

It hurt as she dialed the number, and it hurt as she called Troy. Thinking about him, about what she actually meant for him was painful, but she did not cry.

"Troy Rogers," he answered.

"It's me."

Plain old Davina. Vegan, not good at physical activities, and who did not want children for now, because she had time to think about it.

"Davina ? Babe, I was about to pick you up. Are you at a gaz station ?" he asked with true concern in his voice.

"No, Troy. You abandonned me with no way to go home. You abandonned me before that, as your family was judging me because I don't come from a great bloodline, I am not a mighty hunter like the rest of your pack."

She didn't care that Caleb and Claire were hearing what she was saying. They had heard more pitiful things in the past ten minutes.

"Babe, you have every right to be angry. I am... I was just under a lot of pressure, and I got mad. But you have to understand them, family values and the old ways are just so important for them."

"You left me on the side of the road... And you are blaming family values."

Silence answered her.

"You know how this is," Troy finally said. "People like us exist because we are strong enough to survive. And when we marry people who aren't as strong as we are, we are taking a risk. This is the ugly truth, and you didn't help when you acted like this wasn't a problem."

Davina had feared sadness would make her lose it. This was nothing next to the pure, undiluted rage that almost choked her as she understood she had dedicated so much time and effort to that man.

A single tear ran down on her cheek. And it was black.

Despite the red haze she was swimming through, she heard Troy sigh.

"Listen, we are both angry, and we... Just tell me where you are. I am coming to pick you up."

"No need," Davina said, her face was stained with black tears now, "I am on my way," she cried, except no human cry could be so haunting.

She didn't so much change as revealed herself. The part of herself every woman in her family made sure to keep hidden despite the constant calling at the edge of their mind, especially when a man they cared about wronged them. Her dark hair became longer and swirled as if some invisible breeze was carrying it. Her tan skin paled, adopting a grey tint, and the black dress and sweat-shirt became a white dress that reacher her ankles.

She cried, and she felt free for the first time in years.

Caleb stopped the car in a panic, but by the time he turned toward Davina, she was gone.

  
  


*

  
  


Davina was weightless and distance did not matter to her in this form. She crossed it as if space did not exist, and found the man who wronged her as some ancient instinct was pointing the right direction to her.

La llorona, the weeping woman, the woman in white. The name did not matter. Women in her family knew the price of their tears, and so they learned not to cry. Until it was too much.

She found him driving his car, her handsome Troy, her knight in shining armor that was coming to get her back, to forgive her for not being a prized monster. She appeared in front of the car, an apparition from ancient times, and she managed to see his face as he recognized her. Even as he had never seen her like this.

People like Tyler had too good reflexes to crash their car because something appeared in front of them. But people like Davina could shut down most electrical systems, just as they could frighten animals and extinguish fires back in the days.

The car left the road and crashed into the nearest trees with a noise of screaming metal, and Davina watched, perfectly calm despite the tears on her face, as if her pain left her with the black tears.

Troy managed to escape the wreck. He was bleeding, but people like him could survive a lot. Faster, stronger, and living for the hunt. One of these clans that had bred to be perfect human predators, and that had the bloodthirst to prove it.

"You stupid..." he started, but fell on his ass as her presence pushed him to the ground.

She stood in front of him, regal. She remembered being flattered when he had taken an interest with her. But as she was facing him, that man who had no idea of how bad his situation was, she found herself unable to feel some of the awe he had managed to conjure.

Troy got up, furor in his face : "So that's it ? You decide to go crazy on me ? As if the day wasn't fucked up enough ?"

He moved fast, faster than any human being could be, but his fingers brushed by her as she glided away. He had never raised a hand on her but she knew how strong he was, and if he caught her, he could break her with no real effort.

"You tried to kill me, you stupid bitch ! I loved you !"

He tried to hit her again but she was never where he was aiming.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, noting absent-mindedly that he couldn't even recognized her voice.

She grabbed him by the throat before she could decide it, her fingers sinking into the flesh and holding him with a strengh no woman of her stature was supposed to possess.

"If I had tried to kill you, you would be dead, Troy."

Her boyfriend clawed at her fingers, and despite all his strengh and all his power, he didn't manage to get free. Because she was in his right, he had wronged her, and that gave her power over him.

"This is a reminder," she continued, and her voice was more like her on now. "For you and your likes. Monsters like me aren't nice because we are weak. We choose to be good, constantly. And that can change anytime."

Troy tried to beg.

She wasn't interested by what he had to say.

  
  


*

  
  


Davina reappeared beside the Sedan, and except for the traces of the black tears on her face, she didn't looked anymore like the weeping woman. Caleb and Claire were waiting outside, having an animated conversation.

She awkwardly walked toward them, and Caleb was the first to notice her. He smiled, and she realized he had never doubted she would come back. Either she had found an optimist, either she wasn't the only one who had a gift on this road.

"I had to give you the sweatshirt back," she explained to them.

  
  


  
  


 

 

**Author's Note:**

> My take on the weeping woman story because it's a piece of folklore too interesting not to use it, and I didn't want to take the usual road of the woman killing her children because she was betrayed by the man she loved.
> 
> Any reactions, be they kudos or comments, will be cherished forever.


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